Page 65 of Beguiled
She pursed her lips. As the door opened, she nodded. “Very well. I shall try.”
“Good.”
“One last thing,” she whispered. “I heard the queen talking about how she didn’t need the jewels anymore since she’d soon have gold. What could she mean?”
A soldier stepped into the room, his weapons drawn, his expression severe as he glanced from Ruby to me and back. “Time is up, Your Highness.”
Ruby sniffled and pretended to cry before she threw her arms around me.
It was the giant guard who’d stood outside Ruby’s door the night I’d snuck in. The guard had the grace to look chagrined. Staring at the floor, he waited, clearly liking Ruby and feeling sorry for her. I could only hope that favor would continue once we attempted to escape from the castle later.
Ruby pressed a kiss against my cheek. “What if Mother wants your heart because she believes it will aid the white stone in creating gold?”
She didn’t give me the chance to answer. Instead, she released me and started toward the guard, sniffling again and brushing at her cheeks. After she was gone, I stared at the closed door, her question rattling in my head and growing louder with each passing second.
The queen had established the requirements for the Choosing Ball because she needed a specific heart to mix with the white stone for her alchemy. A heart belonging to the most beautiful maiden in the land, a maiden not younger than eighteen but no older than twenty.
If such a heart was necessary to produce precious gems, then what kind of heart was necessary to create gold? Maybe the white stone would require a heart that didn’t just belong to the fairest maiden, but the fairestroyalmaiden. A princess’s heart. My heart.
The queen sent maidservants to attend to me and make me beautiful once more. Now I knew why—to make my appearance beautiful to ensure that my heart would be acceptable to the white stone for creating gold.
In fact, with the realization of her plans, many of my questions found answers. Now I understood why just after my eighteenth birthday, she’d plotted my murder separately from the Choosing Ball. In her greed, she hoped to have a heart for both gold and jewels. Perhaps she also thought that if my heart failed to produce the gold she sought, then she wouldn’t have to compromise her production of jewels.
Now I understood why she’d never release Ruby to me or to Mikkel, because one day when Ruby came of age, she’d use Ruby’s heart for the same purpose. Perhaps that’s why the queen had worked so diligently all these years to find my cousin, because she wanted Queen Aurora’s heart for her alchemy.
When the guards finally came for me, I told myself I was ready. If my outcast friends could somehow free Ruby and Mikkel, then I’d be able to bear going to my death, knowing that the two people I cared most about were safely in Scania.
As I walked through the long passageways, the heavy steps of the soldiers before and behind me tapped out an ominous rhythm, reminding me not only of how outnumbered my friends would be, but how unsafe against so many well-trained knights.
We exited through a side tower door and rounded the keep into the spacious inner bailey. I forced myself not to glance around and look for my friends. I didn’t want to give away their presence or their positions. Nevertheless, my pulse thudded with expectation.
The thick castle walls rose on the southern side of the bailey and overlooked the sprawling capital city. To the north, mountainous cliffs formed an impenetrable wall. Imposing stone towers spiraled into the air, and I suspected the queen had relegated Mikkel to an isolated room at the top of one of those towers. I prayed Gregor had figured out a way to release him, though I didn’t know how he would accomplish it.
The light-blue skies were the same shade as Mikkel’s eyes, and my heart panged with longing for him. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about and reliving his declaration of love and his kisses from the feast.
I realized now that the queen had planned the feast and made me as beautiful as possible to beguile Mikkel. His ardor had proven the power of my beauty to sway him. And now she had strengthened her case of treason against me, demonstrating that I was in league with Mikkel and condemning him in the process.
While I’d anticipated she might hold Mikkel as ransom for Vilmar, I hadn’t expected her threat to kill him. Surely she would relent and only hold him until Vilmar gave himself up? She wouldn’t behead him and risk Scania’s wrath at taking the life of one of their princes, would she?
At my appearance on the grassy knoll, the gathering of mostly noblemen grew silent. They stood on either side of the queen at the center of the bailey. A dozen paces from them was a sight that turned my stomach—a large smooth stone and the executioner, a man holding a double-bladed axe and wearing a black hood that covered his face except for the eye holes.
Farther away, servants stared from the windows and doorways of the thatched huts built against the inner wall. The buildings formed the soldiers’ garrison, stables, smithy, apothecary, and other trades that made the castle self-sufficient.
Along the battlements, soldiers paused in their duties to peer down. I didn’t need to count to know that four stood along the inner rim and four along the outer, in addition to the two in the gatehouse towers. With the half dozen who escorted me, along with others off duty in the nearby garrison, I didn’t hold out much hope of an escape for myself. Nevertheless, I prayed for it for Mikkel and Ruby.
A quick look around told me Ruby wasn’t present in the bailey, and my pulse stumbled, as did my faltering steps. Had I been amiss in my assumption the queen would make her watch me die? Perhaps the queen still had a shred of compassion left for her youngest child. More likely, she was ensuring that Ruby remained safeguarded for her future alchemy needs.
If only we’d been born boys like Ethelbard. As the heir to the throne, he rarely stayed in the same palace as the queen, and he was currently residing in one of the royal country estates near the eastern coast. Though he’d visited Kensington from time to time while growing up, I’d never gotten to know my brother well. From the little I’d learned, he was unlike my mother in just about every way. Perhaps she’d been able to tolerate him because she didn’t feel threatened by him the same way she did with me.
What would he say once he discovered the queen had executed me? I doubted he would oppose her decision. He did everything the queen asked of him without question, just as our father had done.
Mikkel had accused me of following Irontooth without question. Had I done so not only with Irontooth but also with the queen? Perhaps I’d lived for so long trying to please my mother and gain her affection that I’d closed my eyes to her evil ways, hadn’t allowed myself to see what she was truly capable of doing until it was too late.
The guards ushered me in front of the queen, who stood regally, as beautiful as always. Attired in a gown of fine gold, she shimmered in the sunshine. I understood now why she didn’t accept Mikkel’s offer of an alliance—she would soon have gold and no longer need any other country’s aid. She would be powerful and wealthy enough on her own.
Lifting my chin, I stood unmoving before her. She waited, expecting me to kneel before her as I normally did. However, this time I wouldn’t allow myself to care whether I pleased her or not. I held myself rigid and forced myself not to cower under her sharp gaze.
She nodded toward the castle garden at the rear of the keep. “Your beloved is arriving to watch.”
